Low Voter Turnout In Pittston

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PITTSTON -- One place is not seeing a whole lot of voters – Pittston - despite a pretty big race for district judge.

when Newswatch 16 stopped by earlier Tuesday, 130 people of the 900 registered to vote here had actually cast their ballots.

Election officials say it's been one of the worst years for voter turnout here in Pittston

On this Election Day there were more campaign signs and people outside a polling place in Pittston than there are voters inside.

Volunteer poll worker Antoniette Fath says this year is slower than most, even for earlier in the day.

"A lot of times, our lunch hour crowd would come in, and then leave. But we didn't have that busy time."

Grace Scarantino says she came to vote in the Morning to beat the crowds. But there was no crowd to beat.

"I'm very disappointed. I think it's a shame. So many people have lost their lives fighting for us to have this right to vote, and I think it's everyone's civic duty to vote."

A little more than 900 people are registered to vote at the polling place inside Pittston City Hall. But as of 3:45 p.m., only 172 people cast their ballot there.

Sam Alba says in the 60 years he's been eligible to vote, he's never missed an opportunity to do so.

"I mean, it's so simple. It takes five minutes to come in and do it," he said.

“We do have the opportunity to vote for who we want. People in other countries don't have that opportunity. And if somebody gets in that they don't like, well then they have nobody to blame but themselves," Fath added.

Election officials were hoping that the Pittston district judge race would draw voters but that doesn't appear to have been the case.

1 Comment

JOR

Please report that at least one polling place in Pittston City containing multiple voting wards was changed with poor notice. At our usual location, there wasn’t even a sign on the door. How many would-be voters simply didn’t know where to go? And on the polling place website using my phone, only Pittston Twp was a menu choice. Please do not make Pittston look apathetic; this poorly-communicated change was incredibly frustrating.